If you choose to write down your wishes, it is important that you do it in conjunction with your family doctor and your substitute decision maker. In this way, the key people who will be involved in decisions about your future medical care will be aware of your wishes.

Depending on which State or Territory that you reside, you will find that there is a specific document or form that you can use to document your future healthcare wishes.

Click here to view State or Territory links to documents you can use.

Ask your doctor to sign the form where you record your wishes. This will mean that any future doctor(s) looking after you will know that you have been assisted by your family doctor to make informed decisions and that you were aware of the consequences of your choices.

State and Territory Legal Variations

Depending on which State or Territory in which you reside, you will also find that there are various Common and Statute Laws governing your future healthcare wishes.

Click here to find out about the Common and Statute Laws in place within Australia.

Recording your health wishes in an advance care directive, having it witnessed by a doctor and sharing this document with loved ones means doctors are more likely to adhere to them.

Advance care planning should also involve nominating an alternative decision-maker who will be able to talk to health professionals about a terminally ill person’s health care preferences if they are unable to do so themselves.  Usually this person is a family member or a close friend, who can be trusted to respect their previously expressed wishes.

Additional, in some States and Territories an Advance Health Directive or Enduring Power of Guardianship are legally binding documents which provide health professionals and substitute decision-makers with the person’s wishes about treatment and acceptable outcomes, when the person no longer has the capacity to make decisions for themselves.

They record the adult person’s health care choices, such as whether to pursue invasive life-sustaining measures such as ventilation, or when to withdraw administration of fluids and nutrition.

These documents can offer reassurance to those involved that death will occur with a balance of ongoing treatment while avoiding ineffectual options and maintaining dignity.

Enduring Powers of Attorney allows for a nominated person to make decisions on your behalf about your care, medical and financial affairs.

Please also see our articles on Powers of Attorney.

People suffering a terminal illness can feel a sense of control over their future after recording their end of life health care wishes.  They are reassured they will only receive the medical treatment they wanted, and not what their family and health professionals assumed they may have wanted.

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